Model Based Design of a Split Carrier Wheel Suspension for Light-weight Vehicles

Applying light-weight construction methods to the design of future electric vehicles results in weight reduction of both the vehicle body and the chassis. However, the potential for percental reduction of the sprung mass is larger compared to that of the unsprung mass. Consequently, unfavorable consequences on the compromise, which always needs to be found between road contact and road holding, can arise. This requires additional arrangements in order to reach the performance of a state-of-the-art conventional vehicle. This paper presents a possible design solution. The wheel carrier is split into two parts, thus enabling to tune the frequency response correspondingly to reference vehicles. Besides the technical solution the Modelica modeling of the proposed suspension system as well as a vehicle dynamics and ride comfort assessment are presented.